Breaking Walls

In 1951, longtime radio writer Don Quinn was on vacation with his family in Hawaii when he sat down with Owen Cunningham for an interview about his two most famous shows: Fibber McGee and Molly and The Halls of Ivy. During the course of the chat, Quinn was his opinion on the best radio writing.

On the June 7th, 1950 episode of The Halls of Ivy, it’s a lazy Saturday morning. The college staff members who live on faculty row are enjoying their free time. Professor Quinn-cannon is trimming a hedge, Professor Warren is transplanting some flowering quince, Professor Heslip is weeding his lawn, and Dr William Toddhunter Hall, Ivy’s president is upstairs in his bedroom fast asleep. Of course, that doesn't last very long.

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The Halls of Ivy premiered coast-to-coast on NBC on Friday January 6th, 1950 at 8PM eastern time. NBC programmed the show opposite the evening’s highest-rated show: ABC’s The Fat Man. The program debuted with a rating of 9.

Don Quinn was a master of quips and puns, but much of the actual writing was left first to playwrights Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee, and later to Milton and Barbara Merlin. Quinn acted as editor and creative director.

For the half-season, The Halls of Ivy pulled a rating of just 6.5. It was ABC who had reason to celebrate. For the first time since its 1927 inception as NBC‘s Blue Network, it placed five programs in a night’s Top Ten.

Radio Actress Fran Carlon speaks about why radio actors and actresses needed to be on their toes for script cuts and news cutaways during World War II.

On March 12th, 1983 Herb Ellis and Herb Vigran were guests of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) for a conversation about their intersecting lives and careers in radio, film, and TV. During the course of the conversation Herb Vigran was asked how he came to work for both Jack Benny and Jimmy Durante during his radio career.

This is the first confirmed bulletin to take to the airwaves on the morning of D Day, June 6th, 1944 at 3:30AM Eastern War Time.

NBC newsman Robert St. John made the announcement from the New York newsroom: "Men and women of the United States, this is a momentous hour in world history. This is the invasion of Hitler's Europe—the zero hour."

In 1971 Jim Jordan, better known as Fibber McGee, sat down with Dick Bertel and Ed Corcoran for WTIC's the Golden Age of Radio to talk about his career (full interview here - https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html). In this clip Jim talks about the origins of Fibber's hall closet and the famous gag.

By 1955, Fibber McGee and Molly was running on NBC as a Sunday—Thursday serial. They were one of the few shows to remain on NBC's Sunday schedule after the network debuted Monitor on June 12th.

For more information on this era of Fibber McGee and Molly, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 103: A Weekend at the Malt Shop with Fibber McGee and Molly (1955). For more information on the launch of Monitor, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: The Launch of NBC’s Monitor (1955).

For Westinghouse's 50th Anniversary in 1970, longtime NBC radio announcer Ben Grauer spoke about being on his toes with news relays during World War II.

Born in New York in 1908, he was a child actor who became an NBC staff announcer in 1930. Grauer covered olympic games, announced for Walter Winchell’s Jergen’s Journal, and was hand selected by Arturo Tuscani to support NBC’s Symphony Orchestra.

By World War II he was a senior commentator and reporter.

On Friday April 1st, 1955, NBC's President Sylvester "Pat" Weaver held a closed circuit press conference for NBC affiliates to announce a new weekend programming format which would be called Monitor. Monitor would completely take over NBC's weekend schedule from 8AM Saturday morning until the end of Sunday night.

In this clip, Weaver explains why he feels Monitor can work, and why radio's national network revenue had gotten into trouble.

For more on the launch of Monitor, tune into Breaking Walls Episode 116: https://soundcloud.com/thewallbreakers/bw-ep116-the-launch-of-nbcs-monitor-1955?in=thewallbreakers/sets/breaking-walls-the-wall

In 1982, radio actor Byron Kane was a guest of SPERDVAC (http://www.sperdvac.com) in California for a conversation about his life and career. During the chat he told this funny story about a line flub on an Arch Oboler-directed show.

In 1975, long-time New York radio actor Staats Cotsworth sat down with Ed Corcoran at a radio convention to chat about his career. This interview was later featured in a 1977 episode of WTIC's The Golden Age of Radio (https://www.goldenage-wtic.org/log.html).

In this clip Staats talks about his acting and radio beginnings.